Sheila Gaffney: Embodied Dreaming
RSS Press is pleased to announce the publication of the second of our collaborations with Leeds Arts University and university curator Marianna Tsionki at the Blenheim Walk Gallery.
Embodied Dreaming accompanies the exhibition of the same name by British artist Sheila Gaffney, held at the Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds Arts University from 4 October 2024 to 11 January 2025. It features a curatorial introduction by Marianna Tsionki, and a new essay by the acclaimed feminist postcolonial and social art historian Griselda Pollock, which situates Gaffney’s practice and Pollock’s own relationship to it in a history of women artists and their practices of making, from the 1860s to the 1970s until today. The texts are accompanied by full colour images of Gaffney’s work.
Embodied Dreaming is an Open Access publication produced in collaboration with Leeds Arts University, and can be downloaded from our repository. A limited number of printed copies are available free of charge from our bookshop, at Stevnsgade 11 in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen, open by appointment.
Latest publication
Casa Spizzirò Residency and Work Retreat
We are pleased to announce that RSS Press and SixtyEight have teamed up with Casa Spizzirò, an agriturismo in northern Italy, to offer artists, writers and academic researchers residency and work retreat opportunities the autumn and spring.
Read more about what Casa Spizzirò offers and how to apply here.
RSS Press at CHART Book Fair
CHART Book Fair, Friday 30 Aug. - Sunday 1 Sept.
RSS Press is very happy to be taking part in CHART Book Fair again this year. Our recent publication, Æter/Aether will be featured in the Deep Reading Garden, where you can take a break from the art fair throng and immerse yourself in the contemplation of word and image.
Æter/Aether was produced in connection with the exhibition of the same name held at Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, and features texts by Helge Kragh, historian of science at the Niels Bohr Institute, psychologist and phenomenologist Tone Roald of Copenhagen University, and art historian Christopher Sand-Iversen. The artists featured are: Hanne Friis, Anett Biliczki, Grethe Wittrock, Kasper Kjeldgaard, Barbara Skovmand, Ane Fabricius Christiansen, Inge Lise Westman, Lise Seier Petersen, Vinni Frederiksen, Erna Skúladottír, Pekka Paikkari, and Pipaluk Lake
A limited number of the latest issue of the Bergen/Copenhagen Papers, produced and edited in collaboration with Frans Jacobi, Gitte Sætre and the Bergen Art Academy, will also be available. Issue 4 features an in-depth interview with artist Sergei Prokofiev and selected images by Jens Haaning.
The Book Fair is open Friday 30th, 12.00-20.00, Saturday 31st, 12.00-19.00, and Sunday 1st, 11.00-17.00, in Festsalen at The Royal Art Academy, Kongens Nytorv 1.
We look forward to seeing you!
See the full Book Fair Programme here
New Releases & Lille Bogdag
RSS Press is very pleased to be taking part in this year's Lille Bogdag (Little Book Day) in Copenhagen, which is also the 10th Anniversary of the festival!
Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 May, 12:00 - c. 19:00
See full programme here
Johan Borups Højskole
Barchmann Mansion, Frederiksholms Kanal 24, 1220 København
At our table we will be featuring no less than 3 new publications.
The weekend before Lille Bogdag our latest publication, Æter/Aether, will be launched at Art Centre Silkeborg Bad in connection with the exhibition of the same name. If you're able to make it to that event, you can pick a copy for just 150 kr!
The book will be on sale at Lille Bogdag at the special price of 200 kr, and will thereafter only be available for the full price of 250 kr.
Æter/Aether features full colour reproductions of the works on show at Silkeborg Bad, as well as several contextualising texts. Historian of science at the Niels Bohr Institute, Helge Kragh, has written about the concept of the ether from Aristotle to Einstein, while art historian and editor Christopher Sand-Iversen has written about how the concept entered the modernist avant-garde and how it became linked to both mediums and media. Tone Roald, professor of psychology and phenomenology at the University of Copenhagen has interviewed one of the exhibiting artists, Pekka Paikkari, about his relationship to ether and his materials, clay and memories alike. Each artist has also written about their ideas regarding the ether and their approach, offering insight into their working methods.
Also featured will be two new literary works published by The Copenhagen Review, the poetry collection Dreams of a Lifetime by Gordon Walmsley, and the short fiction collection Idyllia by RSS Press's very own Christopher Sand-Iversen. Gordon will be reading from Dreams of a Lifetime at 17:45 on Sunday 12 May - be sure not to miss that, as well as the annual awarding of the Asger Schnack Prize at 18:15.
In Dreams of a Lifetime, the poet Gordon Walmsley casts his gaze back over the span of his life, writing with a maturity of feeling that allows nature, childhood memories and observations of the contemporary world to stream freely through the poems. He blends the roomy and convivial rhythms of the American South with the lapidary quietude he encountered on first coming to Denmark, and in that space of thought and light which he came to appreciate, his mood rests in the moment and presence of being. Dreams of a Lifetime is attuned both to the cycles of nature and of human consciousness, and as such is a prescient voice in our current time.
Idyllia began as a thought experiment. What would happen if idyllic scenarios that people imagine in their minds were turned into realities in the world? How might these personal idylls become dystopian when their lack of social engagement becomes apparent? Over the course of the writing, various stories went off in different directions, departing wildly from the author’s initial ideas and control, popping up unexpectedly in exhibitions of contemporary art, coming into being and existing only in digital form... Eventually the author realised he had come to write a sort of sci-fi without really having had the intention, and along the way unearthed the previously unknown genre of Idyllic Factualism. The stories in Idyllia ask difficult questions about human imagination and will, the nature of the near future, and suggest beginnings of answers that are unexpected and surprising.
There will also be some special offers on several books from the RSS Press back catalogue. Drop by to have a look and pick up a bargain!
And as if all that weren't enough, the great people behind Lille Bogdag have organised an exhibition to celebrate their 10th Anniversary. RSS Press books featured in the exhibition will be Flower Drop. Introducing Molly Haslund, in the section ‘Anniversary Exhibition’, and Æter/Aether in the section ‘The Year that Was’.
Christmas Discount and Book Fair
This festive season RSS Press will be offering a special 25% Christmas Discount on all of our own titles!
Titles included range from recent publications such as Our Future with Nature and Things in Contemporary Curating by Sidsel Nelund, to titles from our back catalogue that you may have missed, such as Ars Memoria by Helene Nymann, The Anarchists from the White Mountains by Morten Søndergaard, and IMAGE: temporary constellation by Julie Sass.
This offer will be running in our online shop from 21 November 9:00 to 21 December 21:00 CET (GMT +1).
To make use of this offer, simply follow the link to all the RSS titles in our shop, and apply the discount code XMAS23 at the checkout after making your selection.*
Customers located in and around Copenhagen can now also make use of the Pickup option at the checkout, so that you can stop by our office and pick up your purchases instead of paying postage.
We're also very pleased to announce that we'll be taking part in a one-day Christmas Book Fair on Sunday 3 December, 12:00-17:00, as part of LYSFEST.
As well as lots of excellent books published by the members of Mikrofest.dk - absolutely the best place online for purchasing books from Denmark's many 'micro-publishers' - there will also be local stalls, creative workshops, hot drinks, delicious food - and a light ritual.
We hope to see you for this perfect opportunity to find a few Christmas presents and get to know the broad range of independent publishers in Denmark. Our 25% Christmas Discount will apply on the day too!
LYSFEST, 3 December, 12:00-17:00
Demokrati Garage, Rentemestervej 57, 2400 KBH NV
Read more about the LYSFEST event here.
This special event has been kindly organised by Jens Pedersen from the publisher Ti Vilde Heste in collaboration with Demokrati Garage. Many thanks to them and to the good people at Mikrofest.
* Please note that 22 December will be the last day on which we will process orders until the beginning of January 2024. The 25% Christmas Discount only applies to titles published by RSS Press itself. It does not apply to titles we sell and distribute on behalf of other publishers.
On Friday 25 August we will be launching, hot off the press, Our Future with Nature, which has emerged from the two exhibitions The Writing of Nature and Nature-scape, held by SixtyEight Art Institute as part of the Erasmus+ project C6: Creativity, Culture and Collaboration to Combat Climate Change. Like the exhibitions, the book looks at how artistic and scientific practices can supplement and enrich one another as we attempt to face the processes and consequences of climate change. It features the work of and contributions by the exhibited artists — Åsa Sonjasdotter, Roberto Ghezzi, Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen, Morten Poulsen, Saara-Maria Kariranta, and Rafael Villares — as well contributions by atmospheric scientist Nora Zannoni of the National Research Council, Italy, and head of department Claus Beier and soil scientist Carsten W. Mueller of the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen. In addition, Namitha Aravind, a participant in the educational workshop held by SixtyEight as part of the C6 project, writes about her experience of it. The texts are accompanied by full colour photo documentation of the exhibitions.
Info:
Friday 25 August, 16.00-17.00 at our table in Festsalen at Charlottenborg.
Several of the contributors will be present to sign copies and talk to the audience.
RSS Press is pleased to be taking part in the CHART Book Fair, 24-27 August, for the third year in a row. This year we will be presenting two new publications as well as a number of books produced by our collaborators and peers.
On Saturday 26 August, Moniek Driesse will present This morning, I caught you in a drop on my finger, a book about the waters of Mexico City which contains a series of visual essays, maps, love letters and reflections which she has edited and curated. In this bilingual (Spanish/English) publication, imaginaries of the past, present, and future that govern our relationship with water, are permitted to draw maps that can serve as tools to re-imagine our relationships with our surroundings. In Mexico City, the imposition of modernist planning regimes by a capitalism turned into predatory neo-liberalism, has depleted subterranean basins, while rainstorms frequently flood the rivers that were asphalted to become highways. Moniek Driesse’s work explores how long-term memories carried in the urban landscape can redraw narrative lines of care for, and acknowledgement of, the role of others – humans, non-humans, waters – in shaping our world.
Info:
Saturday 26 August, 13.00-14.00 at our table in Festsalen at Charlottenborg.
Moniek Driesse and Sjamme van de Voort will be present to sign copies and talk to the audience.
Also on Saturday, Sidsel Nelund will speak about her recent publication with RSS Press, Things in Contemporary Curating: The Aesthetics of the Right to Assemble and the Need to Withdraw, which was launched on 29 June at O—Overgaden. If you missed that event, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up! Things in Contemporary Curating develops a new aesthetic, an ‘aesthetics of the thing’. Here the word ‘thing’ is understood in its original meaning, namely as an object, a form of political gathering, and a topic. It encompasses exhibitions that use democratic meetings as a curatorial approach, and asks, If the exhibition space were a space for democratic gatherings, how would it look?
Info:
Saturday 26 August, 15.00-16.00 at our table in Festsalen at Charlottenborg.
Sidsel Nelund will be present to sign copies and talk to the audience.
As well as these publications and events, you will of course be able to peruse our back catalogue and selected publications from our partner presses, Beam Editions from the UK and Jap Sam Books from the Netherlands.
And as a special addition this year, we will be joined at our table by Portfolio X, who as well as kindly hosting SixtyEight’s concurrent exhibition, Oceanic Horror by Søren Thilo Funder at their space on Bredgade 71A, will be offering a number of publications by younger and up-and-coming artists they are working with.
We look forward to seeing you!
New Publication
Sidsel Nelund, Things in Contemporary Curating: The Aesthetics of the Right to Assemble and the Need to Withdraw
Through close readings of key exhibitions, Things in Contemporary Curating develops a new aesthetic, an ‘aesthetics of the thing’. Here the word ‘thing’ is understood in its original meaning, namely as an object, a form of political gathering, and a topic. It encompasses exhibitions that use democratic meetings as a curatorial approach, and asks, If the exhibition space were a space for democratic gatherings, how would it look?
The publication will be celebrated at a release party at O - Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the research centre Art as Forum, University of Copenhagen on 29 June, and is already available to purchase.
At the release event, the book will be introduced via a conversation between Simon Sheikh, curator and programme director, MA in curating at Goldsmiths University of London, and author and founder of (art.research) Sidsel Nelund, moderated by Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller.
We hope that you will stop by O - Overgaden and celebrate with us on 29 June!
Programme: Thursday 29 June, 16:00-18:00 (event in Danish)
16:00-17.00 - Introduction and conversation between Rebekka Anker-Møller, Sidsel Nelund and Simon Sheikh
17.00-17.30 - Dialogue with the audience and closing remarks by head of Art as Forum Frederik Tygstrup
17.30-18.00 - Drinks and sale of the book
18.30-20.00 - Dinner at Kanalhuset
Dinner (dish of the day incl. a glass of wine, 200 DKK) at Kanalhuset, Overgaden Oven Vandet 62a. RSVP Monday 5 June at the latest via email: nelund@gmail.com
New publication
in collaboration with Leeds Arts University
Kyriaki Goni, Data Garden
RSS Press is pleased to announce the publication of our first book produced in collaboration with curator Dr Marianna Tsionki and Leeds Arts University in the UK. The book Data Garden springs from the exhibition of the same name by artist Kyriaki Goni, held at the Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds Arts University from 20 January to 1 April this year. It features an introductory essay by Marianna Tsionki, the essay Learning from Narcissus by writer Tom Jeffreys, as well as full colour images from the exhibition.
We are especially happy to be publishing this book, as Kyriaki Goni exhibited Networks of Trust at SixtyEight last May, also curated by Marianna Tsionki. Like that project, Data Garden explores assemblages of a biological and digital nature, issues of storage and privacy on networked technologies, and environmental impacts. It presents the stories of two endemic plants, Saxifraga depressa, indigenous to the Dolomites, and Micromeria acropolitana, which grows exclusively in the rocky terrain of the Acropolis. Secret communities attempt to protect the plants while experimenting with new technologies for storing data in the plants’ DNA. Fiction and scientific facts are intertwined in order to suggest alternative futures and forms of resistance.
Data Garden is an Open Access publication which can be downloaded here, or from the Leeds Arts University repository. A limited number of printed copies are available free of charge from our bookshop, newly located at Stevnsgade 11 in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen, open by appointment.
News and Events
RSS Wrapped: December Bookshop
Wednesday 14 - Thursday 22 December 2022
On Wednesday 14 December RSS Press will open our annual December Bookshop at SixtyEight Art Institute, Gothersgade 167.
A variety of books covering various topics will be available, ranging from art and design to architecture, but also pedagogy. There will be a 15% discount on most titles during the entire period.
Not only it will be possible to buy recent publications from RSS Press’s own catalogue, but also from our partner presses. – The perfect opportunity to pick up that last Christmas present for an important person in your life who already has enough socks!
Art Books Flea Market - Sustainable Book Curating
Friday 25 November, 13:00-17:00
Really Simple Syndication is holding an Art Book Flea Market in our studio at SixtyEight Art Institute, Gothersgade 167.
We are throwing this event as we have various art books that have been in stock for a while. They are still as relevant as when we launched them, but over time they have had to make room for the latest releases. We see this as a sustainable opportunity for these art books to find a caring owner, begin a new life, and be read instead of gathering dust, since they are no longer are available on our website RSS Press. You will find books from our own press, but also others from our partner presses.
This is a unique opportunity to see what has been gathering dust and is waiting for you to blow away the cobwebs of time, wipe the surfaces clean, and uncover the gems that are waiting quietly for you. Perhaps you will find a Christmas present that can serve a sustainable purpose, or just something for yourself? It will of course also be possible to buy from our current range of books, but without the 15% discount available on the selected titles.
We are looking forward to seeing you!
Book Launch and Release Event
FLOWER DROP Introducing Molly Haslund
Friday 18 November, 17.00–24.00
Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Oslo Plads 1 Pegasus–The Café at Den Frie
SixtyEight Art Institute is delighted to announce the release of FLOWER DROP Introducing Molly Haslund. This English-language edition serves as a focused introduction to the artistic work and practice of Molly Haslund. Each contribution in the book explores a selection of artworks and performances produced by the Danish artist over the last two decades. Essays by Karen Vestergaard Andersen, Sanne Kofod Olsen, Miriam Frandsen, and Gabriela Jauregui contextualise and locate Haslund's practice within recent art histories and vividly investigate the artist's vision of the artwork. All in all, and through its many entry points, this book is a rebellious gesture, highlighting recent accomplishments in Danish conceptual art. The edition is lavishly designed by Jeanne Betak and edited by Hugo Hopping for Really Simple Syndication Press.
Thursday, 27 October, 18.00-21.00
IMAGE: temporary constellation by Julie Sass
SixtyEight Art Institute
Gothersgade 167
We are delighted to announce the release of IMAGE: temporary constellation, a new book by artist Julie Sass. This English language edition is a conceptual exploration of the artist's work through the image and its role in the aftermath of artistic production. Various writers give their take in short essays and other written contributions. Julie Sass will present the book in conversation with Karen Elsebeth Jensen, and complimentary drinks will be served.